DCs Lazarus planet event is now underway, throwing some heroes and villains from the publisher’s canon into uncharted territory. In addition to franchise staples such as Batman, Robin, and Martian Manhunter, the event will also feature some of DC’s newer fan favorites, including Red Canary. The heroine, who was introduced last year Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths as a new legacy character who follows in the footsteps of Dinah Lance / Black Canary, has appeared in quite a few stories since her initial debut. In this week’s Lazarus Planet episode, we got our best guess yet of her true identity. Spoilers for the “Red Canary” story Lazarus Planet: Next Evolution #1 by Deliah S. Dawson, Brandt & Stein and Troy Peteri below! Watch only if you want to know!
The Red Canary shows us a little more of the titular character’s day-to-day life – as had been suggested in previous stories, she is a college student living in Seattle, Washington. As she skips a day of school to join Derek James/Sideways in battling Lazarus-induced monsters in Chinatown, we get even more hints about her life. She feels she’s not living up to the expectations of her “Straight-A Family”, a set of parents and an older brother named Leo, and would much rather be fighting crime and playing music like her idol. Through a passive-aggressive note from her roommate, we also learn her first name – Sienna.
Could Red Canary Be DC’s Sin Lance?
When Red Canary was first introduced, theories swirled about whether or not she could secretly be a character with existing ties to the Green Arrow family. One theory, that she is the otherwise grown-up version of Roy Harper/Arsenal’s daughter Lian Harper, is definitively debunked by this story (as are both characters who appear on the cover of the forthcoming issue). Green arrow #1). Another possibility was that Red Canary could be the much-anticipated return of Sin Lance – and oddly enough, the text of this story could very well back that up.
Created by Gail Simone and Paulo Siqueria in 2006 Birds of prey #92, Sin is a young girl who enters Dinah’s orbit at a brutal martial arts camp in Asia, which Dinah enrolled in after switching lives with Lady Shiva for a year. After learning that Sin is being trained to become the next Lady Shiva, Dinah helps her escape the camp, essentially becoming her mother figure. They live together in Metropolis and Dinah leaves the Birds of Prey so she can better protect Sin. In 2007 Black canary miniseries, Dinah and the Green Arrow family battle with the League of Assassins over Sin’s future as the latter group seeks to kidnap her and make her their new leader. To end the conflict, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow fakes Sin’s death and hides her in a convent, where Dinah visits her from time to time.
Of course, DC continuity has been rebooted multiple times since Sin last appeared or was even acknowledged in the comics, leaving the nature of her current history – as well as her history with Dinah – a bit nebulous. Whether or not Sin and DinahFlash point past still exists in this nebulous new timeline, it would be a great reveal that she’s now back in canon under the (let’s be honest, similar-sounding name of) Sienna. Given the way other Green Arrow family sidekicks have aged since the mid-2000s, Sin would probably still be a college-age young woman in the present day, so perhaps Sienna’s family adopted and raised her from the convent to believe she was their biological daughter. Or maybe this is just a new way to introduce Sin without the baggage of the previous story arcs, an approach that has certainly been used with other sidekicks over the years. While it’s great to see Black Canary get a legacy character anyway, the chance to potentially connect a decades-long storyline of hers in the process would be something special.
What do you think of the latest revelations about Red Canary? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
